BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Yanks Solve Martínez, but Need Sojo for Finishing Touch

By JACK CURRY

Published: June 5, 2001

Pedro Martínez started the game for the Red Sox. Derek Jeter had the hit that drove in the tying and go-ahead runs for the Yankees. Mariano Rivera tried to finish the game for the Yankees, but Manny Ramirez prevented that from happening with a ninth-inning flourish.

There was some Martínez, some Jeter, some Rivera and some Ramirez, and then there was Luis Sojo. Which person does not fit?

Sojo stood at the plate in the bottom of the ninth last night with the score tied, one out and Yankees on first and second, and he took two lousy swings against Rod Beck. Then Beck tried to slip an outside fastball by Sojo, who lunged for it, somehow making contact and squeezing the ball past first base and into right field for a game-winning single.

Sojo's wild swing delivered David Justice from second base and helped the Yankees end the dramatic night with a 7-6 victory over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Sometimes, it seemed as if Sojo had not played since he dribbled the World Series-winning single off Al Leiter and the Mets in Game 5 last fall. Actually, it had been 18 days since Sojo had an at-bat and a month since he had a hit.

''Nobody expected that,'' Sojo said afterward. ''It feels like last year in the World Series. Nobody expected that I'd be the hero in the World Series. You have to be a professional. You have to be ready.''

Because Sojo was ready, the Yankees did it again. In the last seven games that Martínez has started against them, the Yankees have won six times. But this one took a twist in the top of the ninth when Ramirez hit a two-run homer off Rivera after Sojo had failed to turn a potential double play on Carl Everett's grounder. The homer evened the score, 6-6; it was the second time in 18 chances that Rivera had botched a save, and Ramirez provided the critical hit both times.

''He's ridiculous,'' Jeter said. ''That's the only way to put it. I wish I could hit like him.''

Jeter later added that he wished he could stay as ready as the little-used Sojo. Opening the bottom of the ninth, Beck walked Justice, who arrived late at the Stadium because of a personal matter, and Chuck Knoblauch sacrificed Justice to second. Jeter was then intentionally walked.

Sojo, who had entered the game in the eighth, wondered if Jorge Posada, who has a thumb injury, might pinch-hit for him. But Posada told Sojo to go win the game. Sojo did.

''He had two half-swings,'' Manager Joe Torre said. ''All of a sudden, he stuck the bat out and kept it fair.''

Martínez worked six innings for Boston and came away with a no-decision. The Yankees had seen all of this before. The two hands meeting in a black glove raised in front of his face. The left leg taking a step back and then rising up before the right arm generates a pitch. The wispy mustache. The skinny body. The fist pump. Every little thing the Yankees saw told them it was Martínez again.

For the third time in 12 days, the Yankees faced Martínez. They tried all night to rattle him and almost did. He tossed fastballs that were clocked as high as 97 miles an hour and he closed five innings with strikeouts, but he was not as overpowering as he had been in the previous two starts against the Yankees and departed after six with a 4-3 lead.

Martínez had thrown a season-low 90 pitches and had struck out 10 when Manager Jimy Williams replaced him with Rolando Arrojo, a curious decision since Martínez had pitched fewer than seven innings in only one of his first 11 starts this year. Williams was trying to protect Martínez, who threw 120 pitches against the Yankees six days ago.

''That was enough for him,'' Williams said. ''We need him all season.''

Scott Brosius singled off Arrojo in the seventh and Joe Oliver, who was filling in for Posada, sacrificed him to second. After pinch-hitter Justice walked, Torre was shrewd enough to have the runners moving as Knoblauch grounded out on a 3-2 pitch.

The decision helped the Yankees avoid a double play and proved crucial when Jeter dumped a bloop that hit the white line in shallow right to drive in two runs, making it 5-4. Bernie Williams added a run-scoring single off Pete Schourek.

''Anytime Pedro comes out of the game, it's a psychological lift for the other team,'' Torre said.

Torre decided not to start Mike Mussina against Martínez for the third time because he did not want Mussina to deal with another draining outing. Torre shifted Ramiro Mendoza from the bullpen and into the unenviable spot. Torre said it is hard to know if the quiet, droopy-eyed Mendoza is even awake, so there was no way to tell if Mendoza was nervous. Antsy or not, Mendoza was bruised for two homers and four runs after Williams went deep off Martínez, and he left in the fifth with a 4-1 deficit.

The Yankees made it interesting in the sixth, with a little help from second baseman Jose Offerman. Jeter rapped a potential double-play grounder to Offerman, but he was slow getting the ball to shortstop John Valentin and Jeter beat Valentin's throw to first.

After Paul O'Neill whiffed and Williams walked, Tino Martinez smashed a triple that chopped the score to 4-3.

Martinez crept off third, but Pedro Martínez never even looked at him. He was focused on Henry Rodriguez and whiffed him on a 2-2 fastball. It was Martínez's final pitch of the night and his 330th against the Yankees in the last 12 days.

Who knows what might have happened if Williams had left Martínez in longer?

Photos: After two wild swings, Yankees' Luis Sojo connected on a pitch from Rod Beck to drive home David Justice.; David Justice glided home last night with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Boston had tied the game in the top of the inning. (Photographs by G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)(pg. D3)